Cross River probes illegal occupation of govt property

The Cross River Government has begun to probe acts of encroachment and illegal occupation of government property in the state.

Leader of the probe team, Mr Gilbert Agbor, who visited the premises of the Teachers Training College, Calabar Municipality on Friday, decried the ‘massive scale’ encroachment on the school.

Agbor said that the Gov. Bassey Otu-led government was committed to tackling the issue of encouragement and illegal occupation of government property.

“Looking at this property, the college’s staff quarters have been taken over by illegal occupants, this is wrong.

“This is impunity taken too far. What I am seeing here today is more than encroachment, government’s land has been outrightly sold.

“Those responsible for this impunity must be brought to book, every government property that has been fraudulently taken, will be returned,” he said.

The governor’s aide said that the asset recovery team had visited other government property being illegally occupied within the municipality.

“This exercise will be taken to every part of the state where people have illegally taken over government property, we must recover them all,” he said.

Earlier, the Principal of the college, Chief Ofem Ubana, said that the activities of land grabbers and illegal occupants had become scarry and worrisome.

“This is what I met when I resumed duty here in 2023. As a worthy servant, I duly informed the authorities,” he said.